Revision Control

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Revision Control

• Daniel Daugherty
• Email Daniel_cfug_at_danield.us

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Introduction

• This presentation will give an overview of
  Revision control
• What is can be used for
• Common Terms
• Who and what can benefit from revision control
  software
• How to implement revision control software.

3
Agenda

• List the topics to be covered
• List the times allotted to each

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What is Revision Control

• Revision Control software is software that keeps
  track of multiple version of one or more files.
• Allows for retrieval of previous versions of a
  file(s)
• Most provide the ability to provide a description
  of changes made in the version being checked in.

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Vocabulary

• Repository Place where a group of revision
  control files live.
• Revision A version of file or group of files.
• Check-in Sends a copy of the current file(s) to
  the repository. Which are then assigned a new
  revision.
• Check-out Retrieves and possibly locks the
  current file(s)
• Merge Action of taking 2 version of a file and
  combining the changes.
• Branch A separate copy of file to allow
  parallel development with in source control.

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Why use Revision Control

• Prevent the Last to Save WINS situation
• Provides a consistent and reliable method to keep
  copies of pervious versions of a file.
• Keeps a log of who made changes and description
  of what changes were made.
• Can allow development on multiple version of an
  application at the same time
• Example Bug Fix for current production
  site/application
• Development of new version

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How to set up Revision Control

• Chose what revision control software you are
  going to use.
• Setup repository(s)
• Setup Securtiy (if supported)
• Install Client
• Import files into repository
• Update working directory
• Checkout file(s) if using file locking
• Edit
• Commit Changes
• Update working directory

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What can Revision Control be used for

• Source Code
• Configuration files
• Requirement and Design documents
• Marketing Material
• Images
• Any type of file.
• Binary file have some limitation with most
  revision control software.

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Locking files VS Concurrent Edit

• Locking -
• great for hard to merge items (binary files).
• Can cause conflict when multiple people need the
  same file.
• requires connection to the repository to obtain a
  lock to allow editing
• Concurrent editing
• no conflict for control of a file for editing.
• no connection to the repository needed to begin
  editing a file
• If two edit occur on the same file a merge is
  required.

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Branching and Merging

• Branching Allows for two or more concurrent
  copies of code to exist in source control for a
  single application. For example -
• The current Production version of a web site.
• And the new 2005 version with new look and feel
  and increased feature set.
• Merging Merging as covered earlier allow
  different versions of files to be compared and
  the changes consolidated into a single new
  version. This functionality can also be used to
  bring changes from one branch to different
  branch.

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Summary

• Revision control give you control over your
  documents
• Can be used for any type of document
• Many different types with different features and
  costs.

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Where to Get More Information

• Comparison of different revision control software
• http//better-scm.berlios.de/comparison/comparison
  .html
• Sub Version links
• Subversion - http//subversion.tigris.org/
• OReilly Sub version book - http//svnbook.red-bea
  n.com/
• Tortosise Client - http//tortoisesvn.tigris.org/
• CVS resources
• CVS - http//www.cvsnt.com/cvspro/
• Tortosise Client - http//www.tortoisecvs.org/
• Essential CVS by OReilly
• Component Software RCS www.componentsoftware.com